Opinion: Employee attitudes shouldn't spoil customer experiences

The livelihood of many businesses today largely depends on its frontline employees and whether they will consistently create and deliver great customer experiences. Maybe that’s why managers today fixate on service scores and ratings, which is a good idea since not closely scrutinizing the customer’s experience for friction and disappointment can be very costly.

A Wall Street Journal article in May, titled “Bridging the Experience Gap,” indicated nearly 60% of customers are willing to leave a brand if they encounter several bad experiences, even if they love the company’s product or services. Customers place great importance on their experiences with a brand, and they aren’t willing to give that up for great products with lousy service.

Management expert Karl Albrecht in the coauthored classic book “Service America” called the exchange between an organization and its customer “the moment of truth.” In my view, that’s the perfect term since customers ultimately make a judgment on their experiences, and the front-line employee’s role is integral to how customers will feel about it.

Organizations that consistently deliver great experiences clearly benefit. Studies, such as those cited in The Wall Street Journal’s article, indicate that customers will pay as much as 16% more for a great experience.

If there’s ever been a time for improving your customers’ experiences and capturing the benefits of customer loyalty, it’s now. A Microsoft study in 2017 found nearly half of all consumers had switched to a different brand due to bad customer service in the previous year.

Investing in the customer’s experience makes sense to prevent future lost business, starting with shaping employee attitudes. For starters, keep four points in mind.

1. Engage the power of praise and gratefulness. Employees try harder to please if they feel appreciated by the boss. Most managers know this already; unfortunately, too many managers don’t practice genuine praise and gratitude with front-line employees. As Albrecht and Ron Zemke write in “Service America,” “The way your employees feel is ultimately the way your customers will feel – and if they think they are valuable, they will treat customers valuably.” Employees care about customers when they feel their managers care about them.

2. Fix customer service mistakes. The sentiment that customer service is declining is accurate. An Arizona State University survey in 2020 reported that more than two-thirds of customers experienced a product or service problem in the previous year that was “very” or “extremely” upsetting. Whenever customers encounter indifferent employee attitudes or when employees fail to embrace a mistake and apologize, it taints a brand’s reputation. Every business needs to empower employees to fix errors and do it with positive attitudes.

3. Clean up the shop talk. I don’t believe in labeling some customers as “problem customers.” If you allow people to talk about customers like they’re a problem, that’s precisely how they’ll be treated. Also, I don’t think it’s helpful to refer to customers as things or numbers. Several years ago, I was secretly shopping for a client’s restaurant operation to prepare a keynote speech. A manager said to a waitress standing by my table, “Get that table water!” Tables don’t drink water. People do. She could have said something more honoring, like, “Please get our guests some water.” Customers aren’t tables that need quick turns, and they aren’t numbers. Use language that’s consistent with how you want customers ideally treated.

4. Correct bad attitudes. Be mindful that attitudes are an extension of your product. An executive of a quick-serve restaurant chain once made this point to me: “A drive-thru employee with a negative attitude will make great food taste bad.” It’s great when customers love the products, but they’ll leave if the business doesn’t deliver excellent experiences.

When people feel valued by their manager and are equipped and empowered to create a great experience for the customer, most will have the kind of attitude that delivers on the organization’s promises.

Consultant, professional speaker and author Mark Holmes is president of Consultant Board Inc. and MarkHolmesGroup.com. He can be reached at mark@markholmesgroup.